Coming up onWednesday is the first instalment of the Invest Shariah Dialogue Series 2022, an annual four-part series organized by Bursa Malaysia that provides a platform for industry experts to discuss the Islamic capital market and Shariah investing-related topics.
Dubai-based Khalid Howladar will speak on the topic of Millenials and Gen Z: Embracing the Future of Investing. Howladar is Chairman of the Advisory Board at MRHB.Network, a landmark DeFi project in Islamic Finance, offering halal and ethical decentralized finance solutions.
Talking points include:
The debate on whether crypto is halal vs haram and whether the next generation should participate or avoid this space, Millennials and Gen Z being the biggest adopters of crypto, a sector now worth about US$2 trillion
The opportunities and use cases of decentralized finance (DeFi) and its role — if any — in Islamic finance and supporting sustainability goals.
Clarity on these terms — blockchain and cryptocurrencies. Is there a misconception on these digital innovations — do they have any value or are they just pure speculation.
How MRHB is raising the bar on safe investing amongst Millenials and Gen Z and how the platform is envisaged to create future investment opportunities.
About MRHB DeFi
MRHB (pronounced ‘Marhaba’) DeFi is a decentralised finance platform built to bring ethics to the DeFi space with an approach that supports the inclusion of faith-based and other excluded communities in addition to existing crypto-natives so that everyone can benefit from the full empowerment potential of DeFi to help build a true peer-to-peer financial and economic value system.
Based on the tenets of blockchain such as trust, transparency, and security, MRHB DeFi has encapsulated universally applicable principles of Islamic Finance into those tenets of blockchain to render a suite of offerings that are also ESG compliant.
The project is backed by a diverse and strong team with backgrounds spanning crypto, technology, faith-compliant investing, finance and seasoned institutional veterans of industry.
MRHB DeFi Official Channels
Website | Twitter | Telegram Chat | Telegram Announcements | Medium | Documents | Facebook | LinkedIn | Telegram Arabic Community | Russian Community | Turkish Community |Persian Community | Urdu/Hindi Community
ConsenSys, a blockchain
Blockchain
Blockchain comprises a digital network of blocks with a comprehensive ledger of transactions made in a cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin or other altcoins.One of the signature features of blockchain is that it is maintained across more than one computer. The ledger can be public or private (permissioned.) In this sense, blockchain is immune to the manipulation of data making it not only open but verifiable. Because a blockchain is stored across a network of computers, it is very difficult to tamper with. The Evolution of BlockchainBlockchain was originally invented by an individual or group of people under the name of Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008. The purpose of blockchain was originally to serve as the public transaction ledger of Bitcoin, the world’s first cryptocurrency.In particular, bundles of transaction data, called “blocks”, are added to the ledger in a chronological fashion, forming a “chain.” These blocks include things like date, time, dollar amount, and (in some cases) the public addresses of the sender and the receiver.The computers responsible for upholding a blockchain network are called “nodes.” These nodes carry out the duties necessary to confirm the transactions and add them to the ledger. In exchange for their work, the nodes receive rewards in the form of crypto tokens.By storing data via a peer-to-peer network (P2P), blockchain controls for a wide range of risks that are traditionally inherent with data being held centrally.Of note, P2P blockchain networks lack centralized points of vulnerability. Consequently, hackers cannot exploit these networks via normalized means nor does the network possess a central failure point.In order to hack or alter a blockchain’s ledger, more than half of the nodes must be compromised. Looking ahead, blockchain technology is an area of extensive research across multiple industries, including financial services and payments, among others.
Blockchain comprises a digital network of blocks with a comprehensive ledger of transactions made in a cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin or other altcoins.One of the signature features of blockchain is that it is maintained across more than one computer. The ledger can be public or private (permissioned.) In this sense, blockchain is immune to the manipulation of data making it not only open but verifiable. Because a blockchain is stored across a network of computers, it is very difficult to tamper with. The Evolution of BlockchainBlockchain was originally invented by an individual or group of people under the name of Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008. The purpose of blockchain was originally to serve as the public transaction ledger of Bitcoin, the world’s first cryptocurrency.In particular, bundles of transaction data, called “blocks”, are added to the ledger in a chronological fashion, forming a “chain.” These blocks include things like date, time, dollar amount, and (in some cases) the public addresses of the sender and the receiver.The computers responsible for upholding a blockchain network are called “nodes.” These nodes carry out the duties necessary to confirm the transactions and add them to the ledger. In exchange for their work, the nodes receive rewards in the form of crypto tokens.By storing data via a peer-to-peer network (P2P), blockchain controls for a wide range of risks that are traditionally inherent with data being held centrally.Of note, P2P blockchain networks lack centralized points of vulnerability. Consequently, hackers cannot exploit these networks via normalized means nor does the network possess a central failure point.In order to hack or alter a blockchain’s ledger, more than half of the nodes must be compromised. Looking ahead, blockchain technology is an area of extensive research across multiple industries, including financial services and payments, among others. Read this Term technology solutions provider, announced on Tuesday that it had closed a $450 million financing round, bringing its valuation to over $7 billion. According to the press release, ParaFi Capital led the funding raise.
New investors joined them, including Temasek, SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Microsoft, Anthos Capital, Sound Ventures, and C Ventures. The United Talent Agency’s venture fund, UTA VC, and Third Point also participated in this round of funding. In this transaction, Sullivan & Cromwell LLP acted as ConsenSys’ legal advisor.
“I think of ConsenSys as a broad and deep capabilities machine for the decentralized protocols ecosystem, able to rapidly capitalize at scale on fundamental new constructs that emerge, such as developer tooling, tokenization, token launches, wallets, security audits, DeFi (1.0, 2.0 and beyond), NFTs, bridges, Layer-2 scaling, DAOs, and more. This view has resonated with our crypto native and growth investors in a Series D that will enable us to execute powerful growth strategies,” Joseph Lubin, Founder and CEO of ConsenSys, commented.
According to ConsenSys’ treasury strategy, the proceeds from this round will be converted to ETH in order to rebalance the ratio of ETH to USD equivalents. They added to ConsenSys’ “ultra sound money” position in advance of Ethereum’s merger to Proof of Stake.
A significant amount of Ethereum, stablecoins, and other crypto assets have been accumulated by ConsenSys over the years, which is actively investing them in DeFi protocols and via staking
Staking
Staking is defined as the process of holding funds in a cryptocurrency wallet to support the operations of a blockchain network. In particular, staking represents a bid to secure a volume of crypto to receive rewards. In most case however, this process relies on users participating in blockchain-related activities via a personal crypto wallet.The concept of staking is also closely tied to the Proof-of-Stake (PoS). PoS is a type of consensus algorithm in which a blockchain network aims to achieve distributed consensus.This notably differs from Proof-of-Work (PoW) blockchains that instead rely on mining to verify and validate new blocks.Conversely, PoS chains produce and validate new blocks through staking. This allows for blocks to be produced without relying on mining hardware. As such, instead of competing for the next block with heavy computation work, PoS validators are selected based on the number of coins they are committing to stake.Users that stake larger amounts of coins have a higher chance of being chosen as the next block validator. Staking ExplainedStaking requires a direct investment in the cryptocurrency, while each PoS blockchain has its particular staking currency.The production of blocks via staking enables a higher degree of scalability. Moreover, some chains have also moved to adopt the Delegated Proof of Staking (DPoS) model. DPoS allows users to simply signal their support through other participants of the network. In other words, a trusted participant works on behalf of users during decision-making events.The delegated validators or nodes are the ones that handle the major operations and overall governance of a blockchain network. These participate in the processes of reaching consensus and defining key governance parameters.
Staking is defined as the process of holding funds in a cryptocurrency wallet to support the operations of a blockchain network. In particular, staking represents a bid to secure a volume of crypto to receive rewards. In most case however, this process relies on users participating in blockchain-related activities via a personal crypto wallet.The concept of staking is also closely tied to the Proof-of-Stake (PoS). PoS is a type of consensus algorithm in which a blockchain network aims to achieve distributed consensus.This notably differs from Proof-of-Work (PoW) blockchains that instead rely on mining to verify and validate new blocks.Conversely, PoS chains produce and validate new blocks through staking. This allows for blocks to be produced without relying on mining hardware. As such, instead of competing for the next block with heavy computation work, PoS validators are selected based on the number of coins they are committing to stake.Users that stake larger amounts of coins have a higher chance of being chosen as the next block validator. Staking ExplainedStaking requires a direct investment in the cryptocurrency, while each PoS blockchain has its particular staking currency.The production of blocks via staking enables a higher degree of scalability. Moreover, some chains have also moved to adopt the Delegated Proof of Staking (DPoS) model. DPoS allows users to simply signal their support through other participants of the network. In other words, a trusted participant works on behalf of users during decision-making events.The delegated validators or nodes are the ones that handle the major operations and overall governance of a blockchain network. These participate in the processes of reaching consensus and defining key governance parameters. Read this Term using its own financial infrastructures, such as MetaMask Institutional and Codefi Staking.
MyCrypto Acquisition
Recently, ConsenSys announced the acquisition of MyCrypto, a market-leading Web3 wallet. Following the acquisition, ConsenSys will combine MyCrypto with its popular MetaMask wallet.
MetaMask and MyCrypto will integrate their efforts under a shared brand to enhance the security of all their products and build a cohesive user experience across browser, extension, mobile and desktop wallets.
ConsenSys, a blockchain
Blockchain
Blockchain comprises a digital network of blocks with a comprehensive ledger of transactions made in a cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin or other altcoins.One of the signature features of blockchain is that it is maintained across more than one computer. The ledger can be public or private (permissioned.) In this sense, blockchain is immune to the manipulation of data making it not only open but verifiable. Because a blockchain is stored across a network of computers, it is very difficult to tamper with. The Evolution of BlockchainBlockchain was originally invented by an individual or group of people under the name of Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008. The purpose of blockchain was originally to serve as the public transaction ledger of Bitcoin, the world’s first cryptocurrency.In particular, bundles of transaction data, called “blocks”, are added to the ledger in a chronological fashion, forming a “chain.” These blocks include things like date, time, dollar amount, and (in some cases) the public addresses of the sender and the receiver.The computers responsible for upholding a blockchain network are called “nodes.” These nodes carry out the duties necessary to confirm the transactions and add them to the ledger. In exchange for their work, the nodes receive rewards in the form of crypto tokens.By storing data via a peer-to-peer network (P2P), blockchain controls for a wide range of risks that are traditionally inherent with data being held centrally.Of note, P2P blockchain networks lack centralized points of vulnerability. Consequently, hackers cannot exploit these networks via normalized means nor does the network possess a central failure point.In order to hack or alter a blockchain’s ledger, more than half of the nodes must be compromised. Looking ahead, blockchain technology is an area of extensive research across multiple industries, including financial services and payments, among others.
Blockchain comprises a digital network of blocks with a comprehensive ledger of transactions made in a cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin or other altcoins.One of the signature features of blockchain is that it is maintained across more than one computer. The ledger can be public or private (permissioned.) In this sense, blockchain is immune to the manipulation of data making it not only open but verifiable. Because a blockchain is stored across a network of computers, it is very difficult to tamper with. The Evolution of BlockchainBlockchain was originally invented by an individual or group of people under the name of Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008. The purpose of blockchain was originally to serve as the public transaction ledger of Bitcoin, the world’s first cryptocurrency.In particular, bundles of transaction data, called “blocks”, are added to the ledger in a chronological fashion, forming a “chain.” These blocks include things like date, time, dollar amount, and (in some cases) the public addresses of the sender and the receiver.The computers responsible for upholding a blockchain network are called “nodes.” These nodes carry out the duties necessary to confirm the transactions and add them to the ledger. In exchange for their work, the nodes receive rewards in the form of crypto tokens.By storing data via a peer-to-peer network (P2P), blockchain controls for a wide range of risks that are traditionally inherent with data being held centrally.Of note, P2P blockchain networks lack centralized points of vulnerability. Consequently, hackers cannot exploit these networks via normalized means nor does the network possess a central failure point.In order to hack or alter a blockchain’s ledger, more than half of the nodes must be compromised. Looking ahead, blockchain technology is an area of extensive research across multiple industries, including financial services and payments, among others. Read this Term technology solutions provider, announced on Tuesday that it had closed a $450 million financing round, bringing its valuation to over $7 billion. According to the press release, ParaFi Capital led the funding raise.
New investors joined them, including Temasek, SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Microsoft, Anthos Capital, Sound Ventures, and C Ventures. The United Talent Agency’s venture fund, UTA VC, and Third Point also participated in this round of funding. In this transaction, Sullivan & Cromwell LLP acted as ConsenSys’ legal advisor.
“I think of ConsenSys as a broad and deep capabilities machine for the decentralized protocols ecosystem, able to rapidly capitalize at scale on fundamental new constructs that emerge, such as developer tooling, tokenization, token launches, wallets, security audits, DeFi (1.0, 2.0 and beyond), NFTs, bridges, Layer-2 scaling, DAOs, and more. This view has resonated with our crypto native and growth investors in a Series D that will enable us to execute powerful growth strategies,” Joseph Lubin, Founder and CEO of ConsenSys, commented.
According to ConsenSys’ treasury strategy, the proceeds from this round will be converted to ETH in order to rebalance the ratio of ETH to USD equivalents. They added to ConsenSys’ “ultra sound money” position in advance of Ethereum’s merger to Proof of Stake.
A significant amount of Ethereum, stablecoins, and other crypto assets have been accumulated by ConsenSys over the years, which is actively investing them in DeFi protocols and via staking
Staking
Staking is defined as the process of holding funds in a cryptocurrency wallet to support the operations of a blockchain network. In particular, staking represents a bid to secure a volume of crypto to receive rewards. In most case however, this process relies on users participating in blockchain-related activities via a personal crypto wallet.The concept of staking is also closely tied to the Proof-of-Stake (PoS). PoS is a type of consensus algorithm in which a blockchain network aims to achieve distributed consensus.This notably differs from Proof-of-Work (PoW) blockchains that instead rely on mining to verify and validate new blocks.Conversely, PoS chains produce and validate new blocks through staking. This allows for blocks to be produced without relying on mining hardware. As such, instead of competing for the next block with heavy computation work, PoS validators are selected based on the number of coins they are committing to stake.Users that stake larger amounts of coins have a higher chance of being chosen as the next block validator. Staking ExplainedStaking requires a direct investment in the cryptocurrency, while each PoS blockchain has its particular staking currency.The production of blocks via staking enables a higher degree of scalability. Moreover, some chains have also moved to adopt the Delegated Proof of Staking (DPoS) model. DPoS allows users to simply signal their support through other participants of the network. In other words, a trusted participant works on behalf of users during decision-making events.The delegated validators or nodes are the ones that handle the major operations and overall governance of a blockchain network. These participate in the processes of reaching consensus and defining key governance parameters.
Staking is defined as the process of holding funds in a cryptocurrency wallet to support the operations of a blockchain network. In particular, staking represents a bid to secure a volume of crypto to receive rewards. In most case however, this process relies on users participating in blockchain-related activities via a personal crypto wallet.The concept of staking is also closely tied to the Proof-of-Stake (PoS). PoS is a type of consensus algorithm in which a blockchain network aims to achieve distributed consensus.This notably differs from Proof-of-Work (PoW) blockchains that instead rely on mining to verify and validate new blocks.Conversely, PoS chains produce and validate new blocks through staking. This allows for blocks to be produced without relying on mining hardware. As such, instead of competing for the next block with heavy computation work, PoS validators are selected based on the number of coins they are committing to stake.Users that stake larger amounts of coins have a higher chance of being chosen as the next block validator. Staking ExplainedStaking requires a direct investment in the cryptocurrency, while each PoS blockchain has its particular staking currency.The production of blocks via staking enables a higher degree of scalability. Moreover, some chains have also moved to adopt the Delegated Proof of Staking (DPoS) model. DPoS allows users to simply signal their support through other participants of the network. In other words, a trusted participant works on behalf of users during decision-making events.The delegated validators or nodes are the ones that handle the major operations and overall governance of a blockchain network. These participate in the processes of reaching consensus and defining key governance parameters. Read this Term using its own financial infrastructures, such as MetaMask Institutional and Codefi Staking.
MyCrypto Acquisition
Recently, ConsenSys announced the acquisition of MyCrypto, a market-leading Web3 wallet. Following the acquisition, ConsenSys will combine MyCrypto with its popular MetaMask wallet.
MetaMask and MyCrypto will integrate their efforts under a shared brand to enhance the security of all their products and build a cohesive user experience across browser, extension, mobile and desktop wallets.
Leading wealth management platform Abra completed a Series C funding with participation from the Stellar Development Foundation. The company raised $55 million in the round led by major players in the industry, such as IGNIA and Blockchain Capital.
The Stellar Development Foundation was one of the new investors in the company alongside Kingsway Capital and Tiga Investment. In addition, Abra received investments from Lerer Hippeau Ventures, Amex Ventures, Arbor Ventures, RRE Ventures, CMT Digital Ventures, and Kenetic Advisors.
Related Reading | An Introduction To Stellar And XLM: Mission, Control, And Consensus
Other relevant names participated in the Series C funding, according to a press release. The wealth management platform increased its total funding to more than $85 million since its creation.
The release claims that the funds will be used to expand Abra’s team into new offerings which include wealth management, trading, and payments. Thus, why the investment from the Stellar Development Foundation could have a relevant role to achieve this goal. Bill Barhydt, founder, and CEO of Abra said the following:
Cryptocurrencies, NFTs and DeFi are now top of mind for almost all investors. The crypto asset class is growing exponentially, even outpacing the early commercial Internet itself. Our vision of crypto-centric banking is coming to life in front of our eyes, and Abra is excited to serve as a leader in the space.
Barhydt claimed to feel “proud” of the Abra team and their accomplishments. The executive expects the platform to keep scaling and growing.
Stellar And Abra’s Shared History Of Crypto Expansion
Since 2020, Abra has seen “tremendous” growth, according to the press release. The company records a ten-fold increase in revenues, and a 0 to $1 billion in assets under management (AUM) for its custody services, Abra Trade and Abra Earn.
Related Reading | Stellar Network To Power New Savings API Launched By Wyre
In the same period, the company’s 155,000 monthly users have processed $4 billion in transactions. In that sense, Bart Stephens, Managing Partner at Blockchain Capital, said the following on its latest Series C Funding:
We believe Abra is on an exciting growth trajectory, led by a strong management team with an understanding of the long-term potential for cryptocurrencies. Abra offers unmatched accessibility for every type of investor which positions the company well for capitalizing on the growth in adoption and interest in cryptocurrencies globally.
In 2020, the Stellar Development Foundation made a $5 million investment in Abra. The partners worked to expand Abra’s financial services with Stellar as a blockchain back-end and “democratize access” to them for new customers in developing countries.
Related Reading | New To Bitcoin? Learn To Trade Crypto With The NewsBTC Trading Course
At the time, the CEO of the Stellar Development Foundation Denelle Dixon said:
Abra is building a product portfolio of financial services that aligns directly with our mission to create equitable access to the global financial system. They’re committed to providing innovative investment opportunities in underserved, capital-scarce markets.
Alvaro Rodriguez Arregui, a Managing Partner of IGNIA, added:
Abra is perfectly positioned to execute on its mission to expand access to crypto assets in a safe and secure way for customers. As international investors ourselves, we recognize the need for safe and reliable access to the crypto ecosystem and are excited to support Abra.
At the time of writing, XLM trades at $0,33 with a 3.8% profit in the daily chart.
XLM with small profits in the daily chart. Source: XLMUSDT Tradingview
CoinDCX, an India-based crypto exchange, has announced the closing of a $90 million Series C round.
The funding was led by B Capital Group (founded by former Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin); plus returning investors Coinbase Ventures, Polychain Capital, Block.one, and Jump Capital among others.
Funding Development
With the funding, CoinDCX will pursue new business initiatives, enhance its product offering, improve technology infrastructure, and expand its workforce.
Other notable plans for CoinDCX include partnerships to expand its user-base, setting up a research and development (R&D) facility, strengthening policy conversations through public discourse, and collaboration with the government to introduce favorable regulations and education support programs.
“With the support of the largest institutional backers in both the traditional and digital asset spaces; we will double down on our efforts to build the next generation of products with cutting edge innovation, improve our existing product array, and strengthen our exchange infrastructure and product team.” – Sumit Gupta, Co-Founder & CEO CoinDCX